Blue Dust
The real and the impossible have merged, leaving everyone in a nightmare.
Decades ago, an accord was made with a mad god – the Lost would allow him a place to rest, and the Agency would feed him the dreams of every agent for eternity. The price was steep, but it saved the world.
No one considered what would happen if the god died…
[catlist name="blue-dust" orderby=title order=asc numberposts=100]
‘Ma’am?’ Magnolia looked up. The movement was sharp. Bird-like. She was far beyond her normal limits. It didn’t matter. She swallowed, and focussed on Hewitt. ‘What is it, Recruit?’ Hewitt sat in the uncomfortable chair she’d placed across from her temporary desk – a way to discourage visitors from staying too long. ‘I’m…not exactly sure, […]
Magnolia froze before him, her mouth half-open with another demand for what he was going to do, her black eyes glaring. Curt stepped back, automatically shifting his body slightly, feeling for- ‘You won’t need a weapon, and nothing you can procure can hurt me.’
There was a pounding noise. Curt rolled over, lifted his head and aimed it vaguely in the direction of the bathroom. ‘Don’t forget the hot water!’ Stef Mimosa. Agent. Super genius. Adorable hacker. Scatterbrained menace to society. The girl who could code up an Agent OS app during breakfast…but forget to balance the water temperature […]
Magnolia pressed fingers into her right eye. She wasn’t tired. She wasn’t allowed to be tired. Everyone was relying on her, and everything would fall apart without her. A few of the older Aides in the network had tried to state their cases for being the defacto leader. Each of them had been taken down […]
Taylor turned and looked back at the fog. The Parkers came through within the expected time frame, and the fog solidified into glass. The tech with purple hair ran up to him, and immediately asked about Mimosa, then enquired if he was in an acceptable state of battle-readiness – if that was how one was […]
Stef shuddered as she looked at herself. Ryan was Ryan-as-he-shouldn’t-be, this was a her-how-she-should-be. A version of her that had been through puberty. A taller, prettier Stephanie that actually looked like a girl. He’d dreamed her perfect. He’d dreamed her as something she could never be.
Stef opened her eyes. Like last time, she couldn’t move; unlike last time, she was alone. Hello? She required a speaker and synched her HUD with it. ‘Hello?’ There were footsteps, and Magnolia came into her field of vision. ‘Report, Mimosa.’
604,799 Parker-2 felt his eyes water. They had, as they had done, blinked on their own, and resumed staring. ^Hear me, please, hear me!^
Frustration. There was the urge to hit Mimosa, to shake her back awake, to ask for more detail, give her commander a longer message, anything. Mimosa grunted. Magnolia straightened herself, a thought tidying her hair. There was a time for frustration, for anger and…elation, but in public, among recruits with frayed nerves was not the […]
Stef tried to scream. She tried to shout. She tried to smile. She tried to cry. Her body refused to move. Curt stared down at her, the best thing she could have seen. ‘Newbie?’ ‘She’s awake.’ Merlin’s voice. ‘She can hear you. And me. But she’s thinking about you.’ Wizard! Yes! Awesome! Not awesome! Why […]